We specialise in needlecrafts, patchwork, quilting, cross stitch, tapestry, felting and so much more. As we attend different events, launch new products, learn new techniques and who knows what else might takes our fancy, we will share our adventures with you.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

It is that time of the month to report in on what I have achieved for the month as part of the 350 Block Project 2015. Here is the link if you are interested 350 Block Project 2015This month's goal is 30 blocks.

Now April has been really busy for me so this should be interesting what this month tally will be.

To start with I manage to get the borders on my Circle Chic Quilt. Now the applique to tackle. 4 for these borders.
Then I slipped in 4 Ohio Star blocks on a new project with my Australian Mystery Quilting group and 1 reject block (no picture).

And the last of my March house blocks from the Bitty Blocks project. 10 I think, hopefully none escaped.

I only got 4 blocks cut for April's Flying Geese Pinwheel Bitty blocks but I only got to sew 1.

The last 2 Inklingo star blocks are done. Now time to assemble the blocks. I had a plan but somewhere along the way I threw it out. Not inspiring enough just sewing the blocks together. So I am working on a new layout.

As my lozenge quilt is ready for rows to join I started some four patch blocks as leaders and enders just for the hell of use some more scraps. Only 8 blocks.

My Vacation Time Block of the month got done, 1 more to the total

There was 2 purple block finished from my Rainbow Scrap Challenge only just in time.

Last of all on the last evening of the month I made my latest Fab Box project. There was 8 half square triangle blocks and 8 more for the borders that went around them.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Each month you will receive a pack of themed fabrics (5 x 30cm width of the fabric per pack). Plus you will receive exclusive discount offers for our web shop www.cynthiasark.com.au . This is the perfect way to increase your stash or start your fabric stash. Plus there will be a bonus surprise in July, October, January and April mail outs. (eg patterns, notions, threads, gifts) Only $38 plus postage each month.

This will be an ongoing club so you can join at any time. You can sign up now at www.cynthiasark.com.au it is featured on the home page under new products.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

I am a member of the 2015 Australian Mystery Quilting group on Facebook where we have been sewing our Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery quilts. As the mystery has been reveal and a number of quilts have been completed (not mine but nearly there) a group of us started a new project, Bonnie Hunter pattern Random Ohio Stars. My aim is to use up more of the leftovers from My Farmer's Wife project and my Wishes project. Both were large quilts and are still waiting on quilting. I must do something about that. In the mean time here are the first three 12' blocks I have completed.

There was a fourth block but I twisted one of my hourglass blocks the wrong way and it needs to be unpicked then sewn back together.

Monday, April 27, 2015

May's colour was purple, so there was plenty in my stash for this month's 2 blocks. The first one was Carrie Nation and the second block was The Broken Sugar Bowl. Both were easy to make and being time poor this month I wasn't sure I would get to them but I did. This made me very happy because I was able to do a little machine sewing this week even if it was for only a few hours.

Carrie Nation Block

The Broken Sugar Bowl Block

The broken sugar bowl is my favourite. Though to me it looks like a christmas cracker. Maybe I will revisit this one when some christmas fabric comes in and make a Christmas quilt. Now that would be a first. Let's see what happens down the track. I am getting carried away. It won't be long and we will have a new colour to play with.

Finally after weeks of been busy I finally finished the binding on this quilt. This quilt was made using Inklingo castle wall collection and I used fabric from the Twice as Nice range by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs. There is a little bit of the range still available in the shop if something takes your fancy. My favourite is the paisley floral print I used for the outer border and my favourite bit of the quilt is the triangle border I made using the bonus triangle in the 9' Castle Wall Collection. I can see me using it again somewhere.

It was easy to hand piece as I could chain piece the triangles together. Of course you could machine piece them but I love hand piecing as it is a portable project. It is just when things are busy I can pick up my hand stitching for 5 minutes and if that is all I can manage that day at least I know I got a little sewing done. In this quilt I hand pieced the blocks and triangle border but the rest was done on the machine including the quilting.
Here it is all done and ready to be hung on my stand at The Stitches & Craft Show on the 7th-9th May Wayville Showgrounds Adelaide, South Australia.

Now I need to piece my Inklingo star blocks together so I can finish this one off too.

Then there is another hexagon project after that. I am running low on hand piecing, so I better prepare my next Inklingo project. One problem, which one do I want to make next.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

I found this block in Quiltmaker magazine May/June issue in Bonnie Hunter's Addicted to Scraps article and it uses lots of 1 1/2 inch fabric scraps. Now I have been using lots of my larger scraps leaving me lot of scraps under 2 inch in size. So after reading the Addicted to Scraps article I thought I would look at what there was in that size in the scrap box. I started with my little cutting table scrap box which was full and needed to be sorted and this is what I ended up with. It's a good start.

I started the cutting process to see what I got out of this lot before I attack the main scrap box which has more pieces that are larger. So far I am halfway through the 2 piles. Some just didn't quite make it as they were a fraction smaller than 1 1/2 inches so they were returned to the scrap box for another time and some went into the bin as they were way too small. Why did I keep some pieces that were barely 1/2 inch square in size (one piece was barely a 1/4 ' wide, so what that it was 4' long. What was I thinking!) The good thing the cutting table bin is now only half full.
I stopped cutting so I could sew a test block. Any excuse to sew, hey. Here it is and it measures the 7 inches stated in the Bonnie's column so I am happy. I don't know how many blocks I will make. We will see where I end up.

I think I will use the little four patches as Leaders and Enders to build them up and my centre squares are all going to be this hexagon print which is my favourite at the moment.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

I am still playing with my scraps. I found this quilt along on My Carolina Home blog 2 1/2 months ago and joined in for the Scrap Dance Quilt Along. Over the last 18 months my stitching projects have been rolling off at a good rate and my scrap bin keeps overflowing. I have to do something with this fabric. I can't waste it. Scrap quilts don't come easy to me so I find these mystery quilt along great help to use up my scraps.
I am doing the lap quilt size in the Scrap Dance Quilt Along, but there is instructions for a number of different sizes. You get to choose. Now we are already up to clue #2. For the first month we had a lot of half square triangles to make. Nice and easy.

This month's clue was even easier sewing with the HST units with squares and I only have to make 20 of these units. I am glad they have been easy clues as there hasn't been a lot of time for sewing.

There is a link on the right hand side tool bar if you are interested in having a look at what we are up to.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

I haven't had a lot of sewing time this month just little bits and mostly it has been hand sewing as time at the machine has had to be put on the back burner when I am busy with events and April is one of the busiest months for me.

I did finally get April's block cut ready to be sewn together but it took me a few days before I could get to the machine to sew it.

Block 4.

There is so much I have to complete in the next couple of weeks I feel I may struggle

with this deadline. I will just have to push on and see where I end up I am thinking a couple of my other block of the months and quilt alongs may have to waiting to next month and catch up next month.
The first four blocks completed.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

What has been happening around here? I can tell you not a lot of sewing that is for sure and because of that I haven't got much to blog about. Lots of boring behind the scenes stuff has kept me busy, most of it on the computer and that is effecting my creative side. I need to do something creative. So last night I cut my next block for Pat Sloan's Vacation Time block of the Month just so I could play with some fabric for me. Maybe I will get to sew it today but I won't hold my breath on that. There is a lot of photos to be taken and the weather is terrible here so I will have to take them inside. Editorial to write and submit, new products to be add to the shop and orders to be cut and packed for this afternoon mail run.
I thought I would share a few new fabrics that have come in and the latest quilt kit in our Kids Strip Quilt range.Too Cute Strip Quilt Kit. Just perfect for a little girl.

Some new fabrics that have arrived are from Penny Rose's Civil War Times and 19th Century Shirting ranges. All will be add to the shop shortly.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Once again we were in Laura trading at the Laura Folk Fair over the weekend. This is one of our favourite events of the year. We get 2 days trading out in the fresh air and it is an overnight stay in the neighbouring town of Gladstone. So it is like a mini break. As always we had perfect weather for the weekend and it was a busy weekend with lots of great crafts, good food and entertainment for the whole family.

This year when we got there we noticed there had been some road works since last year's event and the organisers had to realign our end of the fair which turned out to be a blessing for us, as we have the afternoon sun in our eyes normally. So no more sun in our eyes and as we are outside under hessian tents the sun now didn't reach the back of our stall so we could get out of the sun when needed.

The 2 new Kids Strip Quilts kit Furry Friends and Too Cute were popular with the crowds, along with the Melly and Me patterns (I think that was down to Oliver Hoot being our special guest on the stall). A number of customers wanted to take him home but I couldn't part with him. So they had to buy a pattern and make their own. Am I a mean person? I don't think so.

Of course fabric was the most popular selling item on the stall. I make sure all the fabric boxes are topped up plus extras for such event as we only get out that way once a year. I don't want anyone to miss out. This year the modern fabrics and novelty fabrics were the big movers. I love see what fabrics people buy it helps me select what to order in and I often see interesting mixes that have the wow factor. There was 1 fabric that has been in stock for over 12 months and not move all that well but I had a customer mix it with a different range from a different company and I thought wow that could easily mixed together to create a great quilt. I may have to play around with them and see what happens. It was another great weekend in Laura. We look forward to next year's event.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Choose 2 strips with some contrast and sew them
together lengthways. Press to the darker strip. Cross cut your strip set into
16 x 2 ½’ strips and 4 x 4 ½’ strips.

Arrange the 2 ½’ strip into 4 x four patch blocks
(picture above), pin the centres if you need but the pressing of the seam and
turning of one strip should interlock the centre. Sew your blocks together.

Arrange your blocks as per picture and sew each row
together. Press 1 row seams to the left and the other row to the right. Then
sew the 2 rows together.

Select another strip from your box and cut into a 1 ½’
strip and cut 2 x 16 1/2’ strips and 2 x 10’ strips. Sew the long strips on
first and press to the border.

Then sew the short borders on and press towards the
border. This completes the table runner top.

Quilting Lay
your backing fabric out (right side down) secure it with clamps or tape, then
the batting goes on top followed by your table runner top. Make sure you smooth
each layer as you go so you don't have any lumps. Baste with safety pins or for
small project you can use baste spray glue and quilt as you like. I stitched in
the ditch and through the border right to the edge.

Binding To
make your binding use the last 2 strip and cut the strips into thirds. Join
your 6 binding strips (alternately) end to end with a 45 degree seams, pressing
them open. Press the binding strip in half lengthwise with the wrong sides
together. (I joined my strips together with a straight seam rather than using
the 45 degree mitre join and it made the binding joins really bulky.)

Stitch the
binding to the front of your quilt (folded edge facing in), mitring the corners
and join. Trim the backing and batting to ½ inch from your binding stitching
line. Fold the binding over the raw edges enclosing them hold in place with
binding clips and stitch it in place on the back of your quilt with a matching
thread. Finish your quilt with a label.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

I have been wondering how to quilt this quilt for over a month. It is something I have trouble working out. What quilting design to use? Finally it came to me. I decided on large rectangles diagonally through the blocks using the truck octagons as a guide and turning when I reached the inner border. Since I discovered free motion quilting straight lines last year it has become my favorite quilting technique. I still have the wobble every now and again but I have a wobble when I stitch in the ditch so what the hell.

I wanted to quilt the triangles but in the end I stitched in the inner border and just stitched in the ditch between the triangles and paisley border.

A couple of close up of my quilting and that just leaves the binding which I plan to use the same red as I used for the red border. Looking at the quilt after quilting I wish I had put an extra red border between the triangle border and the outer border but I was worried there would be too much red. It is a very bold colour. Never mind.

The fabric in this quilt is from the Twice as Nice range by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs and can be found in my www.cynthiasark.com.au I used the Inklingo Castle Wall collection for the piecing which I hand pieced.